Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I again thank the chairman for his leadership. It has been critical, as has been demonstrated throughout the process during our subcommittee hearings and our committee hearings, but even before that, the chairman insisted upon hearings that were comprehensive so, as we prepared for this NDAA, we had a sense of the threats we faced, the resources we needed, and, as a result, as the chairman pointed out, we were able to send to the floor, with a unanimous vote, a very strong defense bill. Since that time, working together, we have been able to incorporate over 100 amendments which improve the bill. As the chairman pointed out, we are still working on issues we hope we can bring forward for either adoption or, through debate, a vote, and I hope we can do that. Again, as the chairman pointed out, this is a rare instance of regular order--of the committee report coming to the floor, moving to it by a strong vote, taking up and working to get amendments that are not controversial into the package, and then going ahead and, we hope, setting up debate, discussion, and votes on more difficult and challenging issues. I was encouraged by Senator Schumer's comment that we can anticipate a date for final passage of this bill. We are confident we will have a national defense bill leaving the Senate and going to conference now. The final outline of that bill is still to be determined, and I hope we can add more to it.…”